Well done Livvy, you got Daddy’s dinner..

A”‘s following us everywhere..”

Over the next few days Howard and Joe work really hard to sort the throttle issue. The fuel filter is once again thick black so it’s time to clean out the tanks completely. We are still holding over 220 litres in them though so we need to get rid of it somewhere. Joe pumps most of it into charms tanks through a filter and we fill lots of jerry cans on deck too. The tanks get completely cleaned out, thick black gunk is found, the dreaded bug we feel even though we religiously add in marine 16 or fuel set each time we refuel. So we now have only 25 litres of fuel but a nice clean tank. Hopefully it will cure the issue.

We head to the marina to refuel, 505 litres later and a rather hefty bill and we have diesel pouring into the bilge from the tops of each inspection hatch. We try to tighten the screws but they won’t stop the flow. I run the length of the marina front looking for cup washers to replace the old ones which no longer stop the flow and am unable to fond any. I buy nylon washers and some stainless ones but they do not do the job either. The marina wants their fuel dock back in service so we move across to an empty pontoon as the occupants are out racing in the regatta. We make washers from the patches of hypalon we have for the dinghy and they look like they are holding. Just as well as the official is now here telling us the racing is finishing and the boats need their pontoon back. Boy, it’s pretty stressful this living the dream lark!.

We motor back to the anchorage and settle in for a movie night with charm and her crew  and a big thanks to joe for all his help with the issue.

We are also awaiting a part for the engine as the water coolant pump is leaking. It won’t be in for a few days but we can only stay here for 3 nights before you get moved on so well have to leave and come back again. Charm is on a timeframe to collect friends too so it will be a sad farewell to new made friends.

3 – 4 September -Cala covas Mahon.

My favourite place.

As we come in there is a large catamaran moored. As we start to drop anchor a chap appears at the front of the cat moaning that his chain is now under ours. Howard holds station whilst I jump into the dinghy and take the bathe scope for a look. For those of you wondering what a bathe scope is, it’s a large devise a bit like a periscope that you place over the side of your dinghy and you can look into the water without getting wet. It magnifies the bottom too so it’s great for what we use it for.  I locate his anchor and it’s a good pace away from our, we are not anywhere near it. He settles down and even gets into his dinghy to help me tie up. I manage quite ok on my own! It turns out he is the skipper and the owners were on board so he had to look like he was doing his job. We spend some nice relaxing days in here with Sofie 2 boats down. Sigi and Richard wee even given a taxi ride by Jessica and Olivia back to sofie after taking a stroll to the next Cala.

5 September -Mahon menorca

Back to collect our part. Throttle problem seems to be ok, fingers crossed. We restock on food and provisions as we shall be heading straight back to main land Spain from here.

6 -7 September – crossing to Valencia Spain.

We leave menorca at 08:30 and no sooner have we left the safety of the channel Olivia has a fish on her line. She has caught a 2 tone green fish. No idea what it is or if we can eat it. We use it as bait for bigger fish just in case, we don’t catch any!.

It’s a pretty uneventful day but at 10:30 we see a pod of dolphins. They are the biggest pod we have seen since entering the med, in fact the only real pod and they have absolutely no interest in us at all. At 17:00 the clouds look like we might be in for something so we recheck the weather again to see if we need to divert to Ibiza instead. We decide to head on, reef the genoa and will sail like this all night as it should stay the same. By 22:00 the genoa is away and the main is reefed due to the roll. Better motion now, watch start for Howard too.

My watch starts and it seems like all hell is breaking loose. I hate thunder storms, always have  and I have huge streaks of lightening crossing the sky as I look across the water. Although the beauty of them is awesome, the power of what they can do to us out here is terrifying. I try not to cry out loud as another crash of thunder shakes over head. Fork ligthning is now filling the night sky and shining up the huge tankers drifting on by. Great. At 05:00 there is another storm starting and you can see 2 distinct storms across the skyline, yippee……

Everyone awakes and the normalities of daily life continue. I go below and check the gauges, I note the water tank gauge now seems to be faulty. We had full tanks when we left Mahon, the gauge is now reading empty. I tell Howard we have yet something else to fix. I then go back into the aft cabin and note that the bed feels wet. Surely the girls haven’t had an accident? No they are both ok and would have said something. When I check the whole bed is soaked through, mattresses , duvets, sheets, pillows etc. I check the engine room and note water is everywhere. Our fresh water tanks have emptied themselves into our rear cabin. We have no idea where from but it’s happened and we now have no water. I turn off the fresh water pump and assume it can only have been from the rear shower. When we inspect, the ceiling is dripping wet, it’s run all through the clothes cupboards, across the wifi booster ( which was brand new ) and finished up in the towels cupboard. We have wet cash too- we peg it up on the spin drier – brings a whole new meaning to money laundering. Marvellous.

Our mattresses in the aft cabin are new. They are sprung loaded proper ones not sponge as is usual in a sail boat. I now have to try to dry them and get them out to dry. No mean feat. I heave one up the companion way steps and lash it to the rear of the deck hoping it will dry. It has a horrid stain on it from the water which is not very nice and rather annoying too. Next we have to figure out if we can hold water in the tanks without the same thing happening again. We decide to keep the pump off unless we need lots of water and just use the foot pump at the points of taps to get it out. So the water maker gets put on and we make as we go along. Just got to find out the source of the leak but whilst at sea it’s a little impossible.

Second mattress is up on deck along with anything else we can get up top to dry. Talk about looking like a gypsy camp, we look like we have the kitchen sink out here there is so much.

By 17:00 most things are drying to go below before they start to get damp again. We only have 18 miles to go. I notice that the engine has coughed a couple of times as we motor on, but with everything else that’s going on it will be just another thing to worry about.

20:30 we are entering the marina at Valencia. What do you know, the throttle issue rears it’s head. It’s the first time into a marina all season and now we have this problem rearing it’s head again.  I jump off and try to get a wrap on the bollard with a rope, the boat is 19 tons moving at 6 knots. She’s a big girl to stop. I can’t do it. I try the next one, can’t do that one either. I have one other to try before I run out of options. I run ahead and get 2 turns on her. Jessica throws a rope and lassos the front. Arctic is pulled up short and the nose immediately turns toward the pontoon. She’s going to hit. Olivia is there with a fender but just a tad too late. The starboard side hits but no damage to boat or pontoon. Thank goodness for the Kevlar. I am shaking, have burnt hands and am close to empty. What if I couldn’t stop her, I would have been off the boat and Howard would not have any help apart from the 2 girls. Thank goodness she got pulled up short and that we were in a relatively large space with no other boats to hit.

Joe from charm comes across to help again. Fuel filter changed and once more it’s black but not as bad as it has been. That’s all we can do for today. We all need food and a strong drink. I thought about making myself the figure head for arctic but decided that a squashed face covered in blood was probably not the best for her. The marina allow us to spend the night on the fuel pontoon before getting us to a berth the following morning. Joes picks us up in his dinghy and takes us to a restaurant within the marina complex. The marina is massive, exploring it will be fun once we have eaten and slept.

226 miles and what a way to end the run.